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Showing posts from July, 2022

HIS: Orompoto the first and only female Alaafin of Oyo Empire.

 HIS: Orompoto the first and only female Alaafin of Oyo Empire. Orompoto was the first and only female Alaafin of Oyo. She was the sister of her predecessor, Eguguojo. She assumed the throne in 1554 because there was no male successor to her elder brother at the time. Legend has it that she cut off her breasts (mastectomy) and put on men's clothing to look like a man and for the Oyo Mesi to accept her as Alaafin. In 1557, Alaafin Orompoto (the custodian of the vagina that kills evil plots, the king with the great gift, the king with the flabbergasting gift) strengthened Oyo's military might. She imported horses from as far as Timbuktu in Mali and had over 1000 horsemen. She did tie leaves on the horses' tails so that when they went a fighting, the leaves swept the ground after them to cover trails of the horses' prints. Alaafin Orompoto was a skilful commander and a tactical leader. She was brave and won many battles. During her reign, Oyo regained its military prestig

HIS: 1967 – Nigerian Civil War: Nigerian forces invade Biafra, beginning the war. The first shot was fired at Ogoja in Cross River State.

 HIS: 1967 – Nigerian Civil War: Nigerian forces invade Biafra, beginning the war. The first shot was fired at Ogoja in Cross River State. The Nigerian Civil War (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970; also known as the Nigerian-Biafran War or the Biafran War) was a civil war fought between the government of Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra, a secessionist state which had declared its independence from Nigeria in 1967. Nigeria was led by General Yakubu Gowon, while Biafra was led by Lt. Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu. Biafra represented the nationalist aspirations of the Igbo ethnic group, whose leadership felt they could no longer coexist with the federal government dominated by the interests of the Muslim Hausa-Fulanis of northern Nigeria. The conflict resulted from political, economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions which preceded Britain's formal decolonization of Nigeria from 1960 to 1963. Immediate causes of the war in 1966 included ethno-religious violence and anti-Igbo pogroms